Fair enough feedback.
I think it's up to the game designers to motivate certain playstyles. If there was a reason beyond the personal self imposed challenge to attain S rank in every fight, that would be a motivation, but there isn't a style rank cutoff for completion.
I didn't play Rhythm Master but it sounds like that should be the default difficulty reading the wiki now.
To be more accurate, I refrained from spamming abilities for 90% of the game and did use more than 3 attack combos. But the option to just do that was there. It was not my main criticism of the game anyway.
I should say I approached the game with an open mind, maybe a little too hopeful by the hype, and I grew up in the 5th/6th gen of consoles, so understand the game is a PS2 throwback in terms of the design.
Never have I given DMC a fair shake, maybe that's the kind of audience the game was going for.
Ultimately yeah, I'm saying the game isn't for me. But I often hear the game in discussions of what the industry is missing in terms of game design, and I don't think I agree that it's worth that level of praise.